There’s some good points made in this video … and some very worrying alternatives put forward too.

What works well in unarmed one-on-one violence does not work so well when the nature of the violence changes. So they are right to say that grappling – as one would do in an unarmed one-on-one exchange – is not an ideal fit when facing someone with a weapon. The need to avoid going to the ground with an armed enemy is also sound enough. However …

What we see in the first instance is “bad grappling” against a knife. There is little in the way of solid attempts to control the arm and striking needs to be included too. In an enclosed space like that, where you can’t escape, you have to KO / incapacitate the enemy and effectively control the knife arm while attempting to do so (otherwise you will get stabbed a lot … just as happens in the clip). You need solid grappling skills to effectively control the weapon arm.

To me, the clip does not show that grappling is useless … it shows that inappropriately applied grappling devoid of contextual need is ineffective. It’s a strawman argument.

The idea that kicking is a better option is also very flawed. In reality the distance would be lost fast because the attacker will close that distance. The “attacker” (guy holding the shield with one arm) stays at kicking distance. If he moved in, and was allowed to use both arms such that they could block and grab while stabbing, it would be very different. The demo gives a very inaccurate view of just how effective kicking would be.

We also need to remember that criminals are generally not cooperative enough to pull a knife at sparring distance, so we know it’s coming, before attacking. They are far more likely to use deception and close distance before most would realise a knife is even in play. What do we do there? Ask them to back up so we can kick them? All we can do is violently counter attack while doing our best to control the offending limb. Not easy, but it will be a close-range mad scrabble in which you need grappling skills integrated with striking. Not the mid-range “kick-athon” that is presented in the video.

So I agree that one-on-one unarmed grappling methods won’t work well. However, the kicking alternative won’t work well either. What is needed, when trapped is a small space with an armed attacker (aside from increased awareness so such a situation could maybe have been avoided totally), is violent counter attack; and if you don’t make any attempt to control the weapon limb you are in big trouble … and you need grappling skills for that.

So I agree that one-on-one unarmed grappling methods won’t work well. However, the kicking alternative won’t work well either. What is needed, when trapped is a small space with an armed attacker (aside from increased awareness so such a situation could maybe have been avoided totally), is violent counter attack; and if you don’t make any attempt to control the weapon limb you are in big trouble … and you need grappling skills for that.

I was training with George Roubidis, a member of the Greek Police SWAT squad and he had us training with those little plastic take away knives, the rational being that the days of Crocodile Dundee 'Call that a knife?' have long gone.

If anyone has been inside and learned to knife fight there, then they use small homemade knives, if they are out and about they're not going to have a sheathed bowie knife on their hip.

I've done knife drills most of my life and I can safely say it's been a long time since someone made me stop, rethink and radically alter how I do things.

I made some safety knives from old fashioned clothes pegs, 2"-2 1/2" blades and we tried them.

Here's one drill, the knifeman (km) stands with his arms folded, knife in one hand tucked under his armpit. Both people stand at a chatting distance until one makes a move, either a move/feint away by km or a pre-emptive strike by the def.

All the km does is repeatedly stab as fast as he can, at as many targets as he can, make sure that km does not stand still or make long fencing style thrusts, his idea is to spike the def as many times as he can.

I made some safety knives from old fashioned clothes pegs, 2"-2 1/2" blades and we tried them.

Here's one drill, the knifeman (km) stands with his arms folded, knife in one hand tucked under his armpit. Both people stand at a chatting distance until one makes a move, either a move/feint away by km or a pre-emptive strike by the def.

All the km does is repeatedly stab as fast as he can, at as many targets as he can, make sure that km does not stand still or make long fencing style thrusts, his idea is to spike the def as many times as he can.

Sounds like a very good drill. The elements of surprise and close-range, frantic attack are key I feel. In martial arts we tend to have things way too formal and way too far apart.

Tatsuo Suzuki is a karate legend, he features in my own “martial family tree” on two lines, and the speed and precision of what is does is breath-taking. He is a karateka I greatly admire and he does the drills shown from 39 seconds in this video incredibly well … But, from a practical perspective, the drills – no matter how well done – are flawed because of the formality and distance (and lack of context). Great martial arts. Poor self-defence: https://youtu.be/ohH3eeyU1bU?t=39s

That range, ferocity and rate of fire are far more likely to be how things are in self-protection. Add surprise in there too, and you’ve got a very toxic mix where the formal methods won’t work. Indeed, they are worse than useless because they instil bad habits and false confidence. As “martial art” they are fine. As realism, they are not good. Drills like the one you suggest as the ones we should be drilling if we want to stand the best chance possible of dealing with real knife defences.

Do all of these in your dojo and then add some realism, chances are you won't have the floor space in real life, make a room using 1 wall and 3 other walls with chairs (leaving a doorway) and the object is to leave without getting spiked multiple times.

Some interesting facts; if you do get stabbed, statistically it's probably better to be wounded in the lower stomach (i was reading an article by an ER Doc about what happens) because a knife is low energy weapons the pipework tends to slide around a thrust, so unless there is an intentional slice after the initial stab the chances are good that you'll survive. If you get a deep penetrating wound n the upper stomach - different outcome, liver/spleen/gall bladder are all vulnerable. The aorta runs slightly to the left side of the spine, a nick and you've got minutes left, a direct slice and Goodnight Vienna.

The drill, use the full dojo floor 1st then make the room - with furniture if you can.

Wear as much padding as you can, then no-one's holding back.

The scenario: Km has the knife in either hand and has both hands down by his side, slightly behind his thighs. He attacks stabbing upward and continues

stabbing from as many angles as he can and as fast as he can (all he wants to do is poke holes in you).

The objective - to survive a determined attack.

After you've tried it, do it in the made up room and the objective there is to escape, I've never made it out.

So far we've come to the conclusion that if you want to live your without being paranoid, just trust your intuition, if there's a niggle and you can stop, do so and have a check round, proceed cautiously.

I offered the guys as much protection as they wanted to wear and being idiots of course they refused.

I didn't put the video on where we worked the same scenario when you saw the weapon early, we had to sit the attacker down, a knee to the head cuts the fun short, this was when we built a tube carriage and they ganged up on the attacker.

Take the ideas and play with them, the one common denominator when we watched them back was the attacker started off too close, maybe because they were known, maybe because the defender didn't look 'wrong'.